


are you looking closely?

by Reishiin



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Deception, Infidelity, M/M, The Prestige AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 11:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12769656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reishiin/pseuds/Reishiin
Summary: “Do you love me?” Dennis asks.“Not today,” Yuri replies.There are two sides to Yuri Sakaki: the magician, and the family man.





	are you looking closely?

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: [I would love you more if you were someone who could love me. (buy your love by playing make believe.) - For Duskshipping.](https://vanishing-rainias.tumblr.com/post/157466900698)

 

 

 

Dennis is twenty-three, scraping together a living hustling cards outside the Sawatari Theatre on opening nights, and he answers an ad in the papers by a stage magician looking for an assistant.

At the appointed time he knocks at the door of a small studio apartment across from the Theatre. Yuri Sakaki is a quiet and neatly dressed young man, and he waves Dennis to one of the chairs in the middle of the room and takes the other seat himself. The small room is already crammed with a a variety of props and mechanical apparatus. Another person, cloaked so Dennis can’t see his face, waits in the wings. “Phantom. My engineer, who takes care of the props,” Yuri says, by way of introduction. “He is mute and deaf, so don’t bother talking to him.”

Later in the interview, on the subject of the ad, Dennis asks, “Why not a pretty girl?”

Yuri replies that he cannot afford stagehands, so his help must be able to move heavy objects in addition to standing on stage as his prop. Besides, he does not think his wife will appreciate it.

Dennis nods. “I understand.”

Yuri had also grown up hustling cards, practising sleight of hand in front of dirty bar mirrors and perfecting his acts in the curtained wings of some rich family’s dressing room. It is easy to talk to him. At the end of the hour Yuri stands and shakes Dennis’ hand. “You’re hired,” he says.

 

* * *

 

Unlike the rest of the performers at the Sawatari Theatre, Yuri’s magic act is not showy; he does not use elaborate costumes or sparks or white smoke. But as Yuri nears the end of his routine, Dennis sees why he does not need it: the trick itself is sufficient to carry the act.

For his grand finale, Yuri merely steps through a doorway on one end of the stage, and reappears through an identical doorway on the other.

Dennis knows that this trick is usually done using a body double, who is raised through a trapdoor in the floor of the stage as the performer is lowered through a similar trapdoor on the other end. In fact, there is a performer currently at the Sawatari Theatre who employs precisely this method. But Yuri’s right ring finger is short one phalanx, lost in a childhood accident; he had mentioned that the day Dennis met him, when they shook hands.

He waves to Dennis as he opens the first door – four and a half fingers– and steps through.

The man who appears on the other side of the stage, Dennis observes, has four and a half fingers, and is most definitely the same man.

 

* * *

 

Their first night performing at the Sawatari Theatre, the rich velvet curtains fall on thunderous applause. Dennis has never been this side of the curtain when he falls. Yuri’s eyes are shining, he’s flushed with the adrenaline of the stage, and the spotlights above them both are still blinding. Yuri catches Dennis’ black-clad wrist with one hand (four and a half fingers, the pressure is different) and pulls him close and kisses him.

Dennis’ eyes go wide and he shoves at Yuri, eyes wide. “Yuzu–”

Yuri’s eyes search his face. “She’s not here,” he says. Steps back into Dennis’ space and kisses him again, his free hand settles at Dennis’ waist, and Dennis has wanted this so much and for so long that he lets it happen.

“–Do you love me,” Dennis asks, later, with his fingers tangled in Yuri’s hair.

Yuri just looks at him. Those are the eyes of a performer who can make every person in a crowd feel like they are the only person in the world, and Dennis feels the weight of it settle on him all at once. “Yes,” Yuri breathes, just loud enough for Dennis to hear.

Don’t love a magician, because sometimes they ask to borrow your heart for a trick and then do not give it back. Dennis knows this, because he has met Yuzu. He lets himself fall anyway.

 

* * *

 

The same man, for a given value of ‘the same man’.

Sometimes, Yuri is different; sometimes he doesn’t perform with the same ruthless determination Dennis saw glittering sharp in his eyes the day they met. Hesitates before he slams his metal cage shut on unsuspecting doves, places their bodies in empty paper boxes instead of tossing them in the trash–

– flinches when he touches Dennis, whether it’s on stage beneath the sweltering lights, or in the privacy and darkness of the studio across from the theatre.

Everyone has bad days, Dennis figures, and Yuri is a foreigner keeping together a magic show and a family in the heart of Maiami City. He is under a lot of pressure. Dennis understands–

(and Dennis takes tea with Yuri and Yuzu and the Phantom and sees her pinched face and swelling stomach, the circles under her eyes that mirror his own, and when Yuzu takes him aside and tells him she hates him for taking Yuri from her Dennis wants to (but doesn’t) say that’s the exact reason he hates her, too.)

There are two sides to Yuri Sakaki. There is one who loves Dennis, and one who does not. One who lives for the stage and the lights and the applause at the curtain call, and one who just wants to make enough money to feed his wife and unborn child.

Dennis just wishes he could know which is which, and when and what will make them switch.

 

* * *

 

Yuri lies in their shared bed with the covers pulled to his chest, turns his face away when Dennis moves to kiss him. “What’s the matter, love?”

Yuri doesn’t meet Dennis’ eyes and doesn’t answer.

“When you’re with me, you’re with me,” Dennis whispers against the bare skin of Yuri’s shoulder. “Leave that girl at home where she belongs.”

Yuri doesn’t answer.

As they dress, Dennis asks, “Do you love me?”

“Not today,” Yuri replies.

 

* * *

 

**&.**

Not so long ago on an evening like any other, crossing the busy road to the Sawatari Theatre, the streetlight turned red just as Yuri stepped onto the tarmac. The Phantom’s hand shot out, caught Dennis by the wrist before he could follow. A second later a horse-carriage careened by at a high speed, right over the spot where Dennis would have been had the Phantom not stopped him.

Ahead, Yuri hadn’t noticed anything and had kept walking.

It had been hard to tell in the bad evening light, but Dennis thought the Phantom had turned to him then, his face as always hidden by the cloak, his hand still around Dennis’ wrist, something familiar about the grip. It was like he wanted to say something. But he was deaf and mute; he never had, and he never would.

Then the light had turned again, and the spell had broken. We’re gonna be late, Dennis said though the Phantom wouldn’t hear, and tugged his wrist free. The Phantom followed him to the performance hall, disappeared down the stairs to the space beneath the theatre floor. Dennis scrambled on stage, to Yuri’s side, and prepared for the curtains to lift.

 

 

 


End file.
